People in the food and beverage trade can be wonderfully multi-dimensional, and Jessica Schacht, co-founder of Vancouver Island’s Ampersand Distilling Company, is no exception. This September she will transition out of distilling and into the theatre as she and co-author Sam Young ready their new play, Adult Company, for production at the Vancouver Fringe Festival. “I’ve never been one to shy away from taking risks,” she told me in an email. The play premieres September 7th at Performance Works on Granville Island, and we can’t wait to see it! Tickets and details are here, and I’ve included the press release below:

We’ve all been there. The small hours of the morning, the messy, sweaty energy of a night on the town, the promise of cheap alcohol…and the promise of a good fight. Nightcaps and old wounds bring out the worst in old friends, and that’s the lesson Virginia and Eddie learn the hard way as they find themselves in a post-midnight haze at Bret and Andy’s all-too-compact apartment. As beers, façades and the play itself crack open, the four friends confront dreams and realities, and the danger of looking away from the past.

4am Theatre is thrilled to announce its debut production at the 2017 Vancouver International Fringe Festival, Adult Company, a play by Jessica Schacht and Sam Young. Adult Company is a new drama drawing on the taut, realist theatre of ‘50s and ‘60s along with the dreamy (sometimes surreal) post-modern style of the 21st century.

Adult Company brings together Jessie award-winner Yoshié Bancroft with Diana Beairsto and Zac Scott. This talented group of actors, all local to Vancouver, are directed by co-authors Jessica Schacht and Sam Young. This is Jessica’s first production in the director’s chair, and Sam’s first on the Vancouver Fringe mainstage.

About 4am | Jessica Schacht and Sam Young are graduates of the UVic Theatre and Writing programs, and created 4am Theatre in 2016 to reimagine classic forms of theatre for a contemporary audience. After getting a spot in the 2017 Vancouver Fringe Festival, they raised over $2000 for Adult Company through a GoFundMe campaign, writing haikus in exchange for donations. Jessica makes theatre & gin; she is a professional stage manager from Vancouver Island (Children of God, Urban Ink, Taking Off, This Little Light, The Last Wife, Belfry Theatre) and cofounder of Ampersand Distilling Company. Sam is a Vancouver-based playwright (Tales Told by Idiots; Thus, I Curse Love!) and freelance writer of role-playing games and urban fantasy. Find out more at facebook.com/4amTheatre.